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I occasionally play in this one small home game. The players there are not very good, but this game is more about socializing than playing poker (for me at least). It is a low-stress game designed to be fun. The buy-in is small and they play a tournament, not a cash game.

The guys at the game look up to me not only because I have played in several WPT events but also because I have met and played against several professional poker players. At what should I draw the line between being a mentor and winning a pot? Here is the quandry that I was in:

I have:

on a board of:

I bet the flop and was called. We both checked the hand down to the showdown.

My opponent announced, “Two Pairs - Eights and Fours” while he flips up:

Immediately, I saw that he had the straight, and technically I was beat. My moral issue was that he mis declared his hand. I saw it, and I knew that I lost. Should I say something? This is a friendly and social game, but it is poker.

After pondering for a second, I had a compromise. I announced my hand, which was two pairs also - Queens and Fours. I flipped up the cards and waited to see what would happen. Nobody at the table caught the fact that he had a straight. The dealer pushed the chips to me. After he pushed them, I just let the chips sit there until the next person started to shuffle the cards. I was more than willing to cough up the chips if anybody even hinted about the other guy having a straight. TDA rules say that a verbal declaration about a player’s hand is not binding.

As I stacked my chips, I could not help but to feel guilty. In any serious game, I would not feel bad at all, but somehow, I could not shake the guilt. Perhaps I should fold a winning hand at showdown against the same guy next time we play to make up for the bad Karma that I just received.